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Dr Stephen Stericker – Meet, Match & Fund Reflections

Meet Match & Fund was the title of our well-received workshop on the 28th of October at the Met Hotel in Leeds. You might be wondering why we chose this title – hopefully I can explain.

It is the role of the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) to ensure that innovative technologies, with the potential to transform lives, are more rapidly adopted and implemented across the NHS and care services. We aim to achieve this is by harnessing the remarkable assets that we have within the region and building strong and purposeful partnerships between citizens, health services, industry, and academia. So, why Meet, Match & Fund?

Meet: A lively speed networking session gave people the chance to get together and share their areas of interest for implementing innovative technologies that will improve patient experience and outcomes. It is essential that we build partnerships in order to learn from and support each other with the challenges of implementation. Delegates were then given the opportunity to hear from an array of stimulating regional, national, and international speakers on technology enabled care.

Match: Delegates were invited to take part in table top discussions themed around local priorities, issues and strategies for capitalising on the opportunities presented by innovative technologies and treatments. One of the reoccurring priorities captured from the table top discussions was technologies that enable people to effectively take control and manage their long term conditions.

Fund: Potential grant funding opportunities were presented to delegates, for example, Horizon2020 European Union Research and the Innovation Funding Programme. It came as no surprise to us all that many people in the room had similar priorities. With a regional population of over 5 million people, the attraction of implementing technologies at scale were apparent – not least to grant funding bodies.

To conclude the workshop, delegates were asked to stand up and identify areas where they would like to develop partnership opportunities and potential grant applications in support of their aspirations. Much to our delight they did. Examples included technologies that support young people with mental health and wellbeing and learning from European partners regarding implementing integrated care records. I would like to thank all delegates who submitted an expression of interest and we will be in touch to follow up the progress and provide support where possible.

If you did not attend the workshop, or wish to recap, presentation slides are available to view here.

Our next steps are to build upon the momentum gained from the workshop.The launch of our Yorkshire and Humber Digital Health and Wellbeing Ecosystem is taking place on the 1st December, please click here for more information. Attendees will have opportunity to showcase their digital health and wellbeing ideas and get up to speed on regional priorities and large scale digital health projects across the region.

If you have suggestions around your local priorities for implementing technology enabled care, or have an interest in joining partnership discussions, please contact me (Stephen Stericker) programme lead at the AHSN at Stephen.Stericker@yhahsn.com